Sweet Torture
by JosephineLL
Summary: Trip gets introspective about Ruby. Trip/Hoshi
1. Chapter One

Title: Sweet Torture

Author: Josephine

E-Mail: lovellama@aol.com

Rating: PG-13

Category: Romance/General

Codes: Tr, S

Summary: Trip gets introspective about Ruby.

Notes: This is a response to the challenge on The Linguistics Database (judy.jteers.net/lingdata/): Write a fic where ALL of the following phrases are used in any order: "Smile, it makes people suspicious", "you didn't ask me", "this is wrong", and "masochist". 

Sweet Torture 

Commander Charles Tucker the Third was out of sorts. Not mad, not annoyed, not irritated, just out of sorts. Had been ever since he and Malcolm got rescued from shuttle pod one. 

Walking into his cabin after his shift, Trip looked around at the disorder. Usually the clutter felt homey, but today it was just a big mess. Sighing, he threw himself down on the bunk, flinging an arm over his eyes. 

_What th' hell is wrong with me? Ever since th' shuttle I've been on edge… feel aimless … no direction …_

Trip's mind wandered as he began to doze off. _Ruby… why'd ya go, darlin'? Thought we were meant to be …_ An image of a laughing Ruby in Malcolm's arms as a mass of faceless men waited their turn behind her jolted Trip awake. 

_Malcolm and Ruby._ That's what was bothering him. Ruby. Not necessarily that she had been with Malcolm, but if quiet Malcolm had been with her … Trip recalled the faceless men in his dream. 

_Damn, girl, didn't take you long after I left …_ Getting up, Trip opened a drawer and pulled out a fifth of Wild Turkey. Taking the cup off his washstand, he sat down on the bunk and broke the seal on the bottle. Pouring a generous shot, he looked at the amber liquid before tossing it back, the alcohol burning its way down his throat. 

_Now that you're gone Ruby, what do I have left? Kids … wife … house with a picket fence? All gone. Galivantin' around the universe ain't conducive to settlin' down…_

Trip poured another shot, this one joining the other with a nice blossom of warmth in his stomach. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. 

The door chime finally made it's way into Trip's brain. "Come!" he yelled, not bothering to open his eyes or get up. 

"Trip, do you have time to …" Hoshi's voice trailed off as she saw Trip slumped against the wall, cradling a bottle of something in his arm. 

"Are you alright?" 

Opening one eye, Trip peered up at Hoshi and gave her his most charming smile. "Ah'm fine. What'd ya need?" 

"Careful with that smile, it makes people suspicious."  She looked at him, then at the bottle.  "What are you doing, Trip?" 

"Jest havin' a drink or two." 

Hoshi held up the empty bottle. "Or six." 

Frowning, Trip took the bottle from her. "Ah thought whisky was brown." 

"It is. You finished it off."  Taking the bottle and the cup, Hoshi put them on the desk.  "What prompted this binge of self-pity?" 

"Self-pity?" 

"No-one drinks a fifth of whisky alone because they're happy. Tell me what happened." 

"Ruby. Ruby is what happened." 

Hoshi waited. 

"We had it all figured out. Where we were goin' to live, how many kids; hell, she was buying bridal magazines." 

"What happened?" 

"Ah got reassigned, the letters slowed down, then finally she broke it off. Said somethin' 'bout distance or space or somethin'." 

"Why start drinking now?" 

"Malcolm. Found out Malcolm knew her too. In the biblical sense. She started carrying on 'fore my transport left San Francisco." Suddenly Trip sat up. 

"Do you know how many relationships Ah've had? Three.  Ruby, Natalie, and … hell, what was her name? Do you know how many Malcolm has had? A lot more than three, Ah can tell ya that! Malcolm! Apparently, he's quite the ladies man!" 

Trip put his head in his hands. "Ow. That hurt." 

Hoshi leaned down, picked up his boot and started to unlace it. "He's not dating anyone now." 

"He's got his eye on someone, darlin'." 

Reaching for the other boot, Hoshi paused with a worried look on her face. "It's not me …? " 

"Naw, it ain't you, darlin'," Trip sighed. "Lord knows why though," he finished to himself. 

Putting Trip's boots away, Hoshi didn't hear the last part. "Come on Trip, stand up." 

Trip slowly stood, leaning on Hoshi. She put one of his hands on the wall for support and started unzipping his uniform. 

"Ya know, it's not the fact that Ah lost Ruby herself, it's that there's no one Ah could have a long term relationship with. No one Ah'd think that's say yes." 

"You didn't ask _me_," Hoshi said in a de sotto voice. 

Trip finally realized what she was doing. "This is wrong.  You're the one who gets undressed first." Trip grabbed Hoshi's hands as she pulled his arms out of their sleeves.  "Ah had a dream 'bout you on the shuttle, d'ya know that?  You had red underwear on.  Y'sure were pretty."  He released her hands and started pulling on her zipper.  

The zipper was at Hoshi's waist before she worked through what Trip said and figured out what was happening. "Let's do you first this time." She quickly zipped back up. 

Trip frowned at her zipper, then grinned. "H'okay. Me first." Sitting down on the bunk, he let Hoshi pull off his jumpsuit. Trip got his t-shirt off and his boxers half way down by the time she found the hamper. 

Hoshi quickly looked at the ceiling. "You sure you don't want to leave those on?" 

"Naw. Sleep naked." Trip came over to stand in front of her and grabbed the zipper. "Your turn." 

"Why don't you get in bed. You can watch me strip." 

Trip gave her another charming smile. "Can Ah touch?" 

"No." 

"Sadist." Trip climbed into his bunk. 

"That makes you my masochist." 

"Sweet torture." A yawn split his face. 

Hoshi turned the lights down. "You're practically asleep, Trip. Why don't we finish this later?" 

"H'okay. Stay wi' me awhile though. Ah like you here." Hoshi's hand was quickly captured and pinned as Trip rolled over on it. Hoshi sighed and snagged the desk chair with her foot, sitting at an awkward angle. 

She stayed like that for a while; just looking at Trip, until his breathing evened out and she knew he was sleep. Gently Hoshi eased her arm out from under him. Trip groaned and rolled over on his back again. 

"Sweet torture, indeed." Hoshi ran her hand over Trip's chest, eliciting a smile from him. "Good night, Trip," she whispered in his ear, kissing him on the cheek. 

"Night, Hoshi darlin'," came the mumbled reply.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two  
  
The breeze blowing in through the window lifted the curtains and ruffled the dark blond hair of the man lying in bed. The cool air wasn't much, but combined with the small noises the woman was making while getting dressed, it was enough to wake him.  
  
Trip rolled over to see Hoshi, still in her underwear, rummaging through the drawers. She was wearing the red set he liked so much.  
  
"Hosh."  
  
Jumping, Hoshi turned around. "You scared me."  
  
"Come here, I'll make it better."  
  
"Promise?"  
  
"Sure thing, darlin'." He grinned as she crawled over the bed to him, running her hands over his chest as she straddled him.  
  
"Mmm …" He smiled at her. "Give your daddy some sugar."  
  
Hoshi's mouth, about to work its way up Trip's neck, stopped. In fact, her whole body stilled. Then started shaking. Tears starting to roll down her cheeks, Hoshi fell off Trip and clutched her stomach as she laughed uncontrollably.  
  
Slightly miffed, Trip flipped over to his hands and knees, straddling her in return. "What?"  
  
Wiping her eyes, she looked up at him. "That's not the most romantic pillow talk, sweetheart."  
  
"I've got a better use for my mouth than talkin', darlin'," Trip whispered against her lips.  
  
He was just about to kiss her when a bell rang. Hoshi struggled to get up.  
  
"Leave it."  
  
"It will just keep ringing."  
  
"I don't care," Trip said, pulling her toward him as it kept ringing and ringing and ringing …  
  
Trip sat up in bed with a gasp and a splitting headache. "Hell's bells …" He hit the alarm, then put his head in his hands. What happened last night? I remember … whisky … Ruby? Then why was I dreaming of Hoshi? How did I get into bed?"  
  
Looking around, Trip saw the empty bottle in the recycling bin, the cup on the washstand, his clothes in the hamper. I've never been that neat, especially drunk. Sensations of Hoshi's hands on his skin accompanied images of her taking his clothes off. We didn't … Trip spun around, looking for evidence that Hoshi spent the night, but only got a renewed throbbing in his head.  
  
If we didn't … then what did happen? What did I say? I didn't tell her about the shuttle dream … did I?  
  
Trip downed two glasses of water, brushed his teeth, got dressed, and made his way to sickbay.  
  
"Commander! How are you this morning?"  
  
"Hung over." Trip winced at the doctor's cheerful voice and the bright lights of sickbay.  
  
"And why were you drinking enough to give you a hangover?" Phlox picked up a hypospray and gave Trip an analgesic.  
  
"I lost someone I thought meant somethin' to me."  
  
"And now?"  
  
Trip thought of Ruby, then Hoshi. "Now she's just a memory."  
  
------  
  
Walking into the mess hall, Trip saw Hoshi sitting by the window. Quickly grabbing the nearest buffet offering, he went over and stood next to her.  
  
"Hosh …?"  
  
Hoshi looked up and gave him a pleased smile. "Trip! How are you feeling? Better?"  
  
She was there last night … His heart sank.  
  
"Umm, fine. Can I sit down?"  
  
"Of course." Gathering up her many PADDs, Hoshi cleared a space. She looked at him expectantly.  
  
"I don't … remember much of last night. I recall thinking about Ruby, and getting a bottle of whisky out, but much after that is a blur. I think you came in, later, but …"  
  
"I did. You were sitting on your bunk, leaning against the wall, cradling an empty bottle of Wild Turkey. I asked you what brought about the binge of self pity, and you said 'Ruby'."  
  
"Ruby." Trip sat there, looking at his breakfast.  
  
"Do you want to talk about it?"  
  
Trip looked up into Hoshi's dark eyes. He would have gotten up at any sign of pity, but he saw only concern and … something else …  
  
"What did I tell you about her?"  
  
"That it was serious, you were practically engaged, then you were re- assigned and she eventually broke it off. You mentioned Malcolm …"  
  
"Malcolm. And probably three quarters of the other guys in San Francisco." He picked up his fork and poked at the eggs on his plate.  
  
Hoshi waited.  
  
"I never expected to go out into deep space. I thought I'd maybe stay on Earth, workin' on the engines that would take people out into space. Or maybe be assigned to Jupiter station, workin' on warp engine theory. I wanted a family, a home, something long term. I guess I made Ruby out to be what I wanted, didn't see her for what she really was. And then Natalie …" Trip broke off and took a swig of orange juice.  
  
"I thought Natalie was another I could stay with. But I guess she didn't want to wait until I got back. Two relationships and they both broke my heart," he finished on a whisper.  
  
"I thought you had three."  
  
Trip met Hoshi's gaze. "I guess I did talk last night. The other one was in high school. Didn't mean anything." Hoshi didn't believe him.  
  
"So you drank because you saw the family you want slipping away."  
  
"To put it bluntly, yeah. It was a shock to find I meant a whole hell of a lot less to Ruby then she did to me." Trip sighed. "What else happened?"  
  
"I got you into bed, and you went to sleep"  
  
"I … wasn't wearin' anything this mornin'."  
  
Hoshi gave him half a grin. "I got you undressed, Commander, if that's what you're asking."  
  
A memory teased at the edge of Trip's brain. "Didn't I try to get you …?"  
  
Hoshi nodded. "You mentioned something about a dream you had in the shuttle, where I got undressed first." She took a bite of her melon.  
  
Trip groaned.  
  
"Apparently, I was wearing your favorite red underwear." Hoshi calmly continued to eat her breakfast.  
  
Trip looked up at her, trying to gauge her mood.  
  
"You also mentioned there wasn't anyone on Enterprise that you could have a long term relationship with." He frowned at Hoshi. Her voice seemed strained.  
  
"No, I would have said there's no one I think would say yes, not that there's no one I want to." Trip looked down at his plate; he couldn't meet her eyes.  
  
Hoshi took a deep breath, put all her eggs in one basket, prayed she wasn't wrong, and gave him same response as last night, only louder. "You didn't ask me." 


	3. Coda

Title: Sweet Torture  
  
Author: Josephine  
  
E-Mail: lovellama@aol.com  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Category: Romance/General  
  
Codes: Tr, S  
  
Summary: Trip gets introspective about Ruby.  
  
Notes: This is a response to the challenge on The Linguistics Database (judy.jteers.net/lingdata/): Write a fic where ALL of the following phrases are used in any order: "Smile, it makes people suspicious", "you didn't ask me", "this is wrong", and "masochist".  
  
  
  
Coda  
  
  
Charles Tucker the Third made his way carefully through the wreckage.  _I've never seen it this bad. Amazing the amount of damage they can do in such a short time …_  Catching sight of Hoshi, he made his way over to her.  
  
"How're you holding up?"  
  
"Fine. And you?"  
  
Trip grunted as he slid down the wall to sit next to her. "Been better. Been worse." He watched as a gaggle of screaming, giggling four-year-old girls ran past him, led by his daughter. "I thought girls were supposed be the quiet ones."  
  
Hoshi smiled at him and shifted the nursing Charles Tucker the Fourth. "It's her birthday, Charlie."  
  
He grinned as the girls came hurtling back the other way, screaming and giggling some more.  
  
"Still glad you asked?"  
  
Trip kissed the head of his drowsy son and answered, "Always."


End file.
